Cataclysm!: No Attack Power OR Mana?? Say Wha-!

In the most recent Q & A, it was announced the major changes to Warlocks & Hunters. I have a 42 lock, but she'll be becoming my new Worgen Hunter in the expansion; so here's what I am interested in: changes to Hunter. Most notably, no more Attack Power and no more Mana.

That's right, no more mana.

So that's a weird thought right? I don't know about you, but Mana has never been a real issue for me. Sure, I run out, but with Aspect of the Viper, it's just a few short shots before I'm back up. All in all, it's a refillable resource system that doesn't seem too broken. Yet it seems like we're losing mana and AotV in favor of a Focus system (ala Rogue and Kitty Druid). I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. Having played a feral druid, I know that focus can be a very fast paced and sometimes clunky (then again, I'm not pro-druid.). I'm not sure if I want that on my Hunter...

The other exciting change (as viewed from the pic above) is the no more Attack Power change. Now, to all my fellow BM's, this is a very interesting change. We've heard for awhile now that the pets are going to be scaling better with Hunter's, and this could be a sign of it to come. On the plus side, finally! No longer will BM have to be the outcast of the Hunter specs and have to have a seperate gear plan. 2 AP for 1 AGI seems to bring all the specs under the Agility Umbrella. This is of course, assuming that our pets will follow our Agility better otherwise it's sort of a moot point.

Ok, with that part of the panel over, I'm gonna rest. It's been one squeal-filled day of Blizzcon.

WoW: Cataclysm! New Mounts

So I just got done with the opening ceremony, and finally managed to stop squealing "WORGEN!" enough to actually breathe and write. Now, I am still squealing, and still watching, so I will make this post short. However, during the panel I noticed some screenshots that caught my eye.

Now if you look at the small pic I posted, you'll see that there is definitely a Worgen on top of what is most likely the first sketch of the Worgen mount. Now, the face and body of this mount definitely looks canine and wolf-like at that; the build and ears especially. Now some of the paws though look somewhat lizard or boar like to me. Now I don't know why either boar or lizard would be part of the mount for Worgen, but this mounts "stance" definitely follows a boar-like stance. That tail is very lizardish. So just what are these things??? Well, guess the people of Gilneas aren't the only cursed/mutated creatures we're seeing.

Now Worgen aren't the only new mount. As I typed this, the Goblin mount was showcased. In true Goblin fashion, it is a go-kart-like vehicle. Now I just wonder, will they be crashin' and thrashin' into the walls just like they did in Thousand Needles? I sure hope not....I really don't want to be roadkill....

Edit: Yes, that picture is small. However, MMO-champion updated their site with almost all the same screenshots I took but much larger and better looking. So stop by there and take a gander. Here's their version of the same screenshot I have above, but again, it's theirs. Now we definitely can see, it's boarish.

Blizzcon 2: Return to Blizzcon

This year, I found myself ticketless once again for Blizzcon. Though, I had made it for Blizzcon 08, I was hoping to do it again long before the entire "Cataclysm" hype. But that doesn't mean I am completely out of the loop of Blizzcon this year. While sites like MMO-Champion will undoubtedly keep a great eye on Blizzcon, Mrgl (my talking murloc plush) and I will be watching from the live stream. So I will at least be able to see Ozzie! Which is odd cause admittedly I'm not a huge Ozzie fan (other than the whole Osbourne show a few years back), but I have to admit, you can't help but watch him right?

So what's my biggest excitement or expectation? Well, like most people, I'm hoping for an expansion announcement. I want Worgen like you wouldn't believe! But other than that, the machinima and costume contests will always be a delight. Last year I got to talk with the winner of the costume contest and that was awesome by itself (yes I'm that much of a Warcraft fangirl). Anyways, what're you excited for?

Best. Weeks. Ever.

Warning: The screenshots may contain some language. If you are easily offended, don't view. I'm not responsible for you learning a new word. Thank you.

The past few weeks have been the best ever. Being a casual player, my goals are quite varied from the norm of “OMG epics!” Ok so I still like the purples, but I love other “epic” things: Like taming pets, finding mounts, getting past 300 fishing, etc. etc. Well in the 2 weeks since 3.2 launch (I know, I’m late), I have had a wonderful time.

First of all, I found Skoll! Woohoo! I didn’t even have to end up hating Storm Peaks either. This time around, I told myself I wouldn’t get addicted to camping (like I did with Loque’nahak). I gave myself 2 hour limit and then said I’d play Druid or something. (Un)fortunately, I never listen to myself. I found myself camping like crazy on my home-realm looking for this electric wolf of awesome-ness.

32 hours in (no not straight, I did get out!), I decided to go see if I could find one of those adorable little raptor pets. I switched to Druid, flew to Barrens and went over to where Takk the Leaper spawns. Wow, I hadn’t seen a gathering like that in a long time. It was like Cher or Brad Pitt was going to walk out from underneath that tree. I decided to not bother camping Takk and switched back over to my Hunter. I flew back to Dalaran: while doing so, I hit my target macro.

“YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!”

“OMG ITS SKOLL!” There beneath me, just sitting in the snow was Skoll! I dropped off my drake (literally dropped, for some reason I can never land right….) and dropped trap and tamed. I was surprised but had no problem showing off my new pet to friends, telling them to turn up their sound to hear the lightning effects. I’m sure Heero (Loque’nahak) is pissed about being stabled for 2 weeks, but he’ll manage. As for Skoll, well, he was renamed Raiju. So what’s better than a new pet?

I FINALLY GOT MY RIVENDARE’S DEATHCHARGER!!!!

Auuuugh!!!

So happy. I’ve only done about 53 runs post patch 3.0, but did hundreds of runs (I’ve lost count) since I started farming it last June. I had decided to take Raiju with me and see how a run went that night. As I made it to the Baron’s room, I sat in front of Baron doing my verbal mantra of “Drop my mount asshat!”

And he did.

Upon looting I noticed a strange skeletal horse head in the loot table. I looted so fast and spazzed, I didn’t even get a screenshot of the achievement. I just screamed and spazzed, yelled “OMG!” to my guildies and “FU” to Baron. I swore to never return to Strat, but I think I’m still missing the live strat achievement (nooooo!)…
Hmm I know, sort of a pointless post right? Ah well. I enjoyed squealing the entire time I wrote this, and I’m sure there’s other players out there who have feats that are squeal-worthy too.

So, what’re your “epics”? ;)

Throwing a Monkey Wrench into the Plans

As a Hunter, we’ve all experienced taming a pet and eventually letting it go. We’ve faced the drama of which pet stays and which ones go quite often; despite the fact our stable slots jumped from 3 to 5. As a Beastmastery Hunter, I tend to get overly attached to most of my pets. I say most because I’ve let many a raptor, devilsaur, or generally non-wolf, non-spirit beast and non-cat pets go.

Currently I have a worgen filling up a slot and a cat I planned to let go come patch 3.2 for Skoll. However, given that it took me 5 weeks to get Heero, I doubt I will be lucky to get Skoll right off the bat. Which is a shame, I really liked Storm Peaks, but I’m sure I’ll grow to hate it too soon enough.

Anyways, back on topic.

My dilemmia is this. While running through Hinterlands, collecting Mithril, I found myself heading back to Aerie Peak after a bag full of the stuff. While passing through the pack of wolves and gryphons, I found myself having a jog down memory lane. I recalled one of my first pets, Kiba, also known as Old Cliff Jumper. I remembered spending many a night in Hinterlands, spamming my target macro as I ran to avoid wolves that seemed to always knock me off my Striped Frostsaber. Then, right as I was heading back after giving up, I finally found OCJ on the top of the last hill.

As with all things, I soon picked up Broken Tooth finally and really never looked back at my poor Kiba. Feeling bad I was just letting him sit there, I let him go. Years passed and it wasn’t til Wrath (3.1 to be exact) that I really looked at wolves again.

Anyways, back to mining mithril… as I came into sight of Aerie Peak, I thought to myself “Why not give OCJ one lap around for old time’s sake?” So, I did just that. I ran a quick circle around the small pack of wolves. As I suspected, there was nothing there. As I turned to head back and continue on my journey to the FP which would then take me to IF where I would train and sell ores and bars, something in the corner of my screen caught my attention.

The tell-tale dark black coloration of a worg that could only be OCJ. Surprised, I hovered my mouse over and sure enough, it was him; Old Cliff Jumper! I Call Stabled Pet, put my spirit beast away, grab my throw away cat, abandon said cat and begin taming OCJ.

So here’s my problem…

Instead of being in IF, smelting ores and selling bars and training my Mining, I’m sitting in Dalaran trying to think of a name for this wolf, figuring out what I should do (Keep him[but I’ll get attached!] and dump him when I see Skoll? Keep him and kick out Worgen?). Essentially, I’ve doomed myself to hours of leveling this wolf 5 levels just to try and take him into Ulduar tomorrow…

/sigh

Oh well, guess mining will just have to wait.

Fullmetal PTR: 3.2

So here we are at PTR 3.2. After much work and a long and slow download of a 1.15GB patch, I'm on the PTR. I spent much of the night taking screenshots for Druids (as I currently have one now, more on that in the future) who couldn't log onto the PTR but desired to see the new Druid skins. As you can see here, with my little raptor pal, there is much more to this patch than just the Argent Coliseum.

New pets! Yes you can read more about that at WarcraftPets.com; currently I'm still trying to find all the hidden raptor pets. There's not many BM changes, but there's alot more to be excited over, like a new mount!

Of course many heard about the Paladins getting a new Argent Charger (seen at the left). But no one (other than Mania who I flood with e-mails sometimes, I apologize for that Mania XD) seemed to realize that there is another mount as well. The Argent Warhorse, and this my friends, we non-Paladins can also ride. That's right my fellow non-pallies, we get a Warhorse. Horde are having a good time with the new Ravasaur mount and that sweet Dragonhawk mount. If you're Horde, well in general you should check out Petopia's sister site, Warcraftmounts.com. Mania, being Horde-side, has alot more Horde-info than I can ever hope of knowing. But if you're a mount collector like me go check it out.

I've got so much more to say, but I'll probably add it later. The PTR beckons and I've got to find this new Blackmaw-skin tiger and see if it's a mini-pet and if so, where!? XD

Summer!

Finally, now with the busiest schedule of my life out of the way, I can finally get back to a more appropriate posting schedule. Soon the PTR will be up (that's going to be fun) and I'll be posting alot more this upcoming week.

Yay!

So stay tuned as I dust stuff off and get more prepared around here.

/cackle